


Never Grow Up

by Kgdragoon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: ...but I try to be fair, Character Analysis, Characters are Roasted, Essays, Gen, Headcanon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-04
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:01:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 2,872
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22557550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kgdragoon/pseuds/Kgdragoon
Summary: The characters of the Marauders era never grew up: they all made mistakes and ended up dying far before their time.In this essay I would like to examine each of these characters, and what we can learn from them.
Relationships: James Potter/Lily Evans Potter, Severus Snape v Sirius Black
Comments: 10
Kudos: 15





	1. Sirius

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah... this happened. I read a Harry Potter story and it got me thinking about the Marauders and how they never really got to be adults, like physically they did, but mentally they just... never grew up, and then I wouldn't stop thinking about it and decided to write an essay about all the characters from the Marauders era. I don't even know why.
> 
> Also, before reading this, you should be aware that serious character roasting occurs. I really do try to be fair, though, and I don't bash any of the characters, I just... don't hold any of my opinions back. And the end result is not always nice.

Sirius   


I had to do Sirius Black first – he seems to embody the concept of never growing up (for good reason). 

The story of Sirius, from his perspective, could easily be summarized as “overcoming Slytherins”. He comes from a dark, pureblood family, who are more than a little bigoted and as we see in the series, these types have proudly gravitated towards Slytherin for awhile now. From what we see of Grimmauld place, the home he grew up in, as well as his parents (the perpetually screaming portrait of Walburga Black), we can easily infer that he didn’t have a pleasant childhood; that there was likely some component of danger and abuse intrinsic to his home life. Then he went to Hogwarts, got sorted into Gryffindor, and made friends with James Potter, which further deteriorated his relationship with his family, and provided an environment that rewarded him for fighting with Slytherins, and eventually bullying them. Then, he graduated, joined the Order of the Phoenix, and fought Voldemort and his followers (the majority of which were Slytherin).

So, before going to Azkaban, it seems as though Sirius’s story is one of first being abused by Slytherins, then abusing Slytherins, and then fighting against Slytherins in a situation where his side admittedly had the moral high ground. Then Azkaban happened, and given what we see of the prison, it seems unlikely that he socialized much, if at all, and his time was undoubtedly fraught with dementors. We can conclude that the eleven-ish years spent there were wasted- they afforded him no possibility of maturing and ‘growing up’; he was essentially frozen in time.

Given that he only escapes the prison to enact revenge, and not to take up his godfatherly duties, it seems to support the idea of a man trapped in his early twenties, not a more mature, responsibility-minded man in his thirties. His continued childish bickering and bullying of Snape (‘Snivellus’) also supports the idea.

If there’s one lesson we can learn from Sirius it’s that having the moral high ground doesn’t make mistreating others right, even if they’re people you don’t like or think are morally bankrupt. Bullying is wrong.


	2. Snape

Snape 

This brings us to Severus Snape, who seems to be a sort of funhouse mirror to Sirius Black. But instead of his story being one of overcoming abuse (albeit in wildly unhealthy ways), Snape’s story is one of being trapped in cycles of abuse. 

The books heavily imply that Snape grew up in an abusive home, and that his father was the major perpetrator (at least in Snape’s mind- he does identify with his mother’s family name of ‘Prince’ more than his father’s, after all). Then Snape went to Hogwarts, got sorted in Slytherin, and became the victim of abuse from his schoolmates. It honestly doesn’t matter if he fought back or gave as good as he got, we see from his memories that it was four against one and that other students stood by, laughing at his humiliation. Furthermore, the Marauders were the instigators of this bullying, and in at least one instance, their action was spurred from the desire to relieve boredom. And let’s face it, Snape was always going to be an easy target for bullies: he had neither good looks nor a good personality; he was also poor, a half-blood in Slytherin, and he came from a abusive home life.

Then Snape became a Death Eater, sometime around his graduation from Hogwarts, though it is clear that his indoctrination began years before then (he did call Lily a ‘mudblood’ after all). I can only speculate what they promised him to get him to join; I honestly don’t think they would have had to offer him more than acceptance, friendship, and a place where he belonged. I imagine the reality didn’t live up to the promises, and given that we see Voldemort kill Snape (while still thinking that he’s loyal to him) merely because he thinks Snape is suddenly more useful dead than alive, I think it’s safe to say that Snape’s relationship with the Death Eaters and Voldemort was also abusive.

Lastly, we come to Snape’s relationship with Dumbledore. From their memories, we see him beg Dumbledore to save Lily, and promise him literally anything for him to do it. Whether or not Dumbledore would have tried to save Lily without Snape’s hefty pledge is irrelevant here – the issue is that it sets a troubling precedent of Dumbledore manipulating Snape into doing his bidding. He uses him like a tool. Over and over again, Dumbledore only treats Snape like a person when he’s trying to guilt Snape into doing something for him. And even says that ‘perhaps we Sort too soon’, when Snape proves himself, implying that Snape should have been in another house (Gryffindor) and that Slytherin is inherently, inescapably bad. To add insult to injury, Dumbledore forces Snape into a lifetime of servitude, working an extremely dangerous and thankless job as a spy and double-agent; that is, when he isn’t stuck doing a job he clearly despises and is ill-suited for (teaching).

And so we see Snape go from abusive family, to abusive schoolmates, to abusive friends, to abusive parental figure.

Much like Sirius, we see him eagerly fall back into an immature mindset: bulling Harry (even though Snape is the adult now, and Harry isn’t James); pick fights with Sirius and resort to childish, schoolyard taunts (‘Snivellus’ and ‘Mutt’); and lastly, we see that he never got over Lily. When he says ‘Always’, it isn’t romantic, it’s just another sign that he never grew up; never moved past his childhood. And unlike Sirius, Snape doesn’t have the excuse of a decade in prison for his immaturity, he just chose to never grow up.

If there’s one thing we can learn from Snape it’s that eventually we all have to grow up and become adults, and that means being able to put old grudges to rest and be responsible, especially with the younglings in our care. 


	3. Lupin

Lupin

Oh Remus Lupin, how I wanted to like you. You were one of my favorites until that bit at the beginning of the 7th book, and that just really got me thinking… for a Gryffindor, you’re kind of a bit of a coward.

Seriously, Neville Longbottom did as an 11 year old something Lupin never did in all his years at Hogwarts: stand up to his friends. Lupin seemed like nice person, but I don’t recall a single instance of him trying to curtail his friends’ behavior. And later, he became a prefect, and as such, he had the responsibility to stop his friends from bullying and humiliating another student, but he didn’t. An excerpt from the chapter in question to prove my point: "Many of the surrounding students laughed, Sirius and Wormtail included, but Lupin, still apparently intent on his book, didn't, and nor did Lily." Lupin pretended to read his book the entire time and stayed out of the confrontation entirely. 

In all fairness, it does look like he matured some: he seemed to try to be civil to Snape, and he stepped in front of a boggart to protect his class, knowing full well that it would transform into his greatest fear and give the children a clue about his lycanthropy. He even gets married and has a kid… only to try to leave his family and go haring off on an adventure with Harry and co. to save the world. In the book it's made clear that that's why he's trying to go with Harry. Harry calls him out on his lily-livered attempt to flee his fears and responsibilities, and basically tells him to act like an adult. Let that sink in: Harry, then 17, tells a man twenty years older than him to act like an adult. Not to mention the whole final battle thing which left his son an orphan (still not convinced that was the brightest idea; definitely not very responsible, parenting-wise). And let's not forget that he ran off, half-cocked, on the night of a full moon to confront his murderous former friend (I'm sensing a pattern with the Marauders here), and forgot to drink his wolfsbane potion!! This, of course, resulted in him turning into a werewolf and attacking his students (which could have turned them into werewolves!), and ultimately being ousted from his position as professor. Good going Lupin. Still, I’ll give him points for trying. 

If there’s one thing we can learn from Remus Lupin, it’s not to let ourselves be defined by our insecurities, or our illnesses. If we do, then we might just end up not living the lives we want until it’s almost too late to matter.


	4. Pettigrew

Pettigrew

We’ll never truly know what Peter Pettigrew was thinking when he betrayed the Potters. If you take him at his word, then he was coerced into giving up their location; and knowing about the Cruciatus Curse, someone spilling valuable secrets to avoid pain is actually more reasonable than Sirius’s “I would have died first!” bravado. 

But there are some pieces of his story that just don’t add up. Firstly, the Fidelius Charm is supposed to prevent someone from being able to be coerced into giving up a secret, even under the Cruciatus; they have to have an honest and uncompelled desire to tell the secret. Secondly, how would Voldemort have even known he was the secret keeper? There were only four people in the world that knew he was the Potter’s secret keeper: the Potters themselves; Sirius, who suggested the idea; and Pettigrew. 

I think it’s much more likely that Pettigrew began to think he was on the losing side of the war, and knowing how Voldemort treated his enemies, he didn’t want to suffer the same fate. He willingly sought out Voldemort and told the secret to spare himself future pain. It, of course, did not go according to plan. There’s also evidence of Pettigrew being enamored with power and prowess in “Snape’s Worst Memory”, where Pettigrew is sycophantic in his treatment of James’s smallest displays of skill, and gleefully cruel in his treatment of their opposition (he’s described as “watching hungrily” as James and Sirius advance on a Snape who had been knocked to the ground, and then “sniggering shrilly” at Snape’s continued torment).

Really, the best I can say about Pettigrew is that after he made his bed, he did lie in it (for the next decade and more)…. It was actually for this reason that I had originally planned to place his section after Snape’s: after all, they both had the opportunity to grow up, to mature, but instead they chose to remain frozen in time.

If there’s one lesson I took from Peter Pettigrew, it’s that we can’t let ourselves be controlled by our fear. That way lies nothing but heartache. 


	5. Lily and James

Lily and James

*Sigh* I had to do Lily and James Potter together, because much of what I have to say applies to them both.

I’ll start off by admitting that I don’t get their relationship; we don’t actually get to see it, or a reformed James Potter. We’re only told that he turned over a new leaf, but we never get to see what that entailed, and so we can’t judge for ourselves just how true that really was. For this one we’ll just have to take the story at its word, and take what we know about Lily as the only proof.

On the subject of never growing up, these two very nearly unmade my thesis. After all, they had all the things you think of when you think “adult”: adult aged, with a spouse, home, child, presumably jobs and responsibilities (it’s mentioned that James had enough money to support his family and Lupin without the need for a paying job, but the Potters were fighting a homicidal Dark Lord, so I’ll keep my last point).

It was actually this last bit that prompted me to write this whole essay, because the Potters were fighting a homicidal Dark Lord; not only that, but they were large enough targets that Voldemort eventually decided to personally kill them over the Longbottoms. And while this very dangerous war was going on, which they were on the front-lines of, they decided to have a child. 

Firstly, I’m 100% sure that the wizarding world had birth control: if Ancient Egyptians and Romans had methods of birth control (including the Silphium plant, which was so popular it was literally picked to extinction), then I’m sure wizards and witches would have spells and/or potions. That implies that either Harry was planned... or he was the result of rather extreme carelessness. 

What responsible adult, in their right mind, with access to birth control, would decide to have a child in the middle of a war they were currently extremely involved in fighting? I know wizards typically lack logic, but Lily was muggleborn, and seemed to at least have a decent amount of commonsense, so I’ll just have to chalk this one up to immaturity. Here more than ever, Lily and James remind me of the hormonal, reckless teenagers I've known more than responsible adults.

[Really, considering all the children of Death Eaters and Order of the Phoenix members that were born this year alone, I could probably go on a rant about wizarding stupidity in general, and question how this war even happened in the first place with everyone apparently so… preoccupied with other matters.] 

Anyway, the fact that the Potters didn’t immediately flee to a distant continent when they realized the severity of their situation also seems to support the conclusion that the Potters were still very much young and not entirely grownup- relying on the advice of an adult figure (Dumbledore) to tell them what to do, and not being as careful, or thoughtful, as they should have. I also don’t think it’s insignificant that their first steps into adulthood ended with their deaths.

And now, the part I actually wanted to talk about: what we can learn from the Potters. I think the lessons I learned from them were perhaps the most important out of all the characters in this essay:

From James, I think we can take the lesson that we, as people, are not immutable. We are all capable of changing; of recognizing our errors and flaws and working to correct them. Sure, it isn’t easy, it’ll take a whole lot of time and effort and grief, but in the end that’s really the only way we’ll grow as people and be capable of living more fulfilling lives.

From Lily, I think we should all take to heart the lesson that it is okay to cut toxic people out of our lives. Even our family, or our oldest, dearest friends can become toxic to us, and we have no obligation to keep someone who is harming us in our lives, or to try and ‘fix’ them. In the end, a person can only responsible for themselves, and it’s okay to leave (or to let go). 


	6. Regulus

Regulus

Last, but not least, I had to include Regulus Black. For a character that had such an impact on the plot, we know so very little about him. 

We know that he was Sirius’s younger brother who he described as being “soft enough to believe” their parents’ ideology and that he was “a much better son,” a fact which Sirius was constantly reminded of by his parents. We also know that he was sorted into Slytherin, admired Voldemort when he was young, and eventually became a Death Eater at the age of 16. We learn that Regulus, at 18 years old, ultimately decided to betray Voldemort after he harmed Kreacher (the Black family’s house-elf) while securing one of his Horcruxes (another deciding factor in Regulus’s decision to defect). Specifically, we learn that, after figuring out that Voldemort had created a Horcrux, he ordered Kreacher to take him to its location, and then to escape, to leave him behind to the lake of inferi, and destroy the locket.

Personally, I much preferred Regulus’s redemption arc to James’s. Mostly because we actually get some of the details- enough to paint the picture of a kind boy coming from a deeply prejudiced family, overcoming his upbringing and ultimately doing what's right, even if it cost him his life. I also loved that one of the deciding factors in his betrayal of the incredibly powerful and terrifying Dark Lord was the wellbeing of a humble house-elf, something most wizards constantly dismiss, even Sirius (a factor which, considering Regulus, was rather ironic in how it contributed to his own death).

So yeah, Regulus was maybe the most mature character from the entire Marauders era cast. If only because we don't get to see how he lived his life after.

I think the most important lesson Regulus can teach us is what it means to be an adult: independence, responsibility, and maybe most importantly- the ability to critically analyze even our most deeply held beliefs and childhood teachings, and reject them if we find that they no longer fit. Plenty of people grow old, fewer people ever grow up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And thus concludes my 3am rant.


End file.
